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Hits Magazine August 2018
Release The August 2018 edition of the UK based Hits Magazine was released on July 30th, 2018 internationally. Callie Hunter was featured on the cover with two versions available to purchase. The magazine's main article centers around Hunter's new album and personal life. Article The 2010s have been a turbulent decade for music. Trends fade and die with new ones seemingly yearly. However, American pop singer Callie Hunter found a niche within pop radio to not only keep her career alive but to find it thriving. She has earned a number one album in the UK with Head In The Clouds and multiple hit singles. Her most recent hit, "Here Comes The Rain" is the first single from her upcoming seventh album Sweetest Dreams. Out August 24th, the album sees Hunter refining her image and sound for the first time. While interviewing her, Callie showed me a few unreleased songs, including her next single. It's hard to follow up an international blockbuster like Clouds, ''but from what I heard Hunter's newest record is by far her strongest and most cohesive. Of the three songs she played for me, I was pleasantly surprised by how each song had it's own identity. A song titled "Night Night" is a sparse R&B song full of layers and layers of vocals. Hunter said she recorded nearly hundreds of takes over a week with the song featuring a 64 part harmony. Another track called "Echoes" is more of an interlude. The song features colorful layers of vocal samples and has a multitude of textures in under two minutes. The song is beckoning, it builds to a heavy break of scattering drums and bass before fading away. Lastly, Callie showed me her upcoming second single from her album. Called "Something Beautiful" and for good reason. The message is powerful. It'll surely be added to the pop canon of inspiring anthems. It holds the same sound and drum pattern as it's predecessor, but with a House-like charm. Interview '''How did this album come to be, was it particularly difficult to change your sound and try and create an image?' "I don't feel like I've created a new image, just dyed my hair and started being more outward! But It actually was really difficult to make this album. I have been working on it since June of 2017 and at first it was a whirlwind of recording whenever I got the chance and it was all so electronic and experimental. It got to a point though that it felt false to who I am as an artist. So I really started in January, for reals." You've said you had a creative rut for awhile. What helped overcome that? "When I started recording I was stuck. I had spent so much time making such crazy stuff I felt almost creatively drained. Luckily I met some wonderful people. Two producers named Elliot and Jonathan worked with me originally just to see if anything would happen and then we worked so well they helped shape a lot of the album. We wrote three songs in a week and they all ended up on the album, actually." That's impressive! Did they create the sound for the entire record or just the songs they helped on? "As pop producers by day and DJs by night they're so flexible and worked with my vision. We wrote songs first with just a piano and then worked on giving them life. They approach writing very differently than me and it was refreshing. When we regrouped later on, I had brought a bunch of musical inspirations with me to work on. My boyfriend, who I had just recently started dating at that point showed my footwork and breakbeat music. Those both influenced the record a lot. And the other half of the album is my usual take on Pop, R&B." Has R&B always been a go-to or was it a sound that you needed time to find your own personality in? You've made multiple R&B influenced songs yet each time you really make it your own. "Thank you! I really want my music to have a particular sound aside from just my own voice. A lot of my love of R&B started when I was a kid listening to Whitney. But I had a rocker chick phase laughs. It was kinda thrust on me but it really wasn't hard to make my own. But if I had it my way I'd do a disco album! Or maybe an EDM album." Some of your music can be personal, are there any touchy subjects on this record? "Oh absolutely. This was a hard year or so personally. I had one relationship end and another begin. My dad is always doing his best with his health although there have been some scares. A lot I also had been keeping within me. I recently started therapy and I now allow myself to feel things I have kept down for so long. Us cancer signs like to bottle it all up." Callie Hunter's new album Sweetest Dreams is out August 24th!